Boulder County flood victims facing housing crunch

Displaced residents encountering tightest rental market in 13 years

Dan Laska, waiting to go through the check point to get into Lyons on Saturday, was displaced by the flood and has had trouble finding a temporary rental property.
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CLIFF GRASSMICK
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Dan Laska considers himself fortunate.

The 43-year-old Lyons resident said his family's home was not severely damaged or destroyed by the historic flooding earlier this month.

Housing, however, remains one of Laska's biggest concerns.

Laska and other Boulder County residents affected by floods are encountering hurdles in efforts to find stable shelter. The efforts of hundreds of displaced residents to seek short-term housing have resulted in a further saturation in an already tight rental market and a shrinking of options for people such as Laska.

Laska and his family and pets evacuated Lyons on the morning of Sept. 15, days after floods tore through the county. After being taken in by a co-worker who lived in Niwot -- and dealing with subsequent evacuations -- Laska said his efforts to find temporary housing have been fruitless.

"I'm just displaced ... what was available already was picked up by the time we got out," he said.

A generous friend offered the family housing in Keystone for October -- most likely resulting in the home-schooling of their 5- and 7-year-old children -- but starting November 1, the family is back to being without a home.

Knowing that it may be months before his family could return home, Laska said he has had little luck finding an affordable, month-to-month rental within a 45- to 60-minute drive from Longmont, where his children's school has been temporarily relocated.

During the second quarter, the apartment vacancy rate in the Denver metro area was 4.2 percent, according to data from the Apartment Association of Metro Denver and the Colorado Division of Housing. The market was even tighter locally, with a Boulder and Broomfield counties posting a vacancy rate of 3.8 percent.

Keep in mind, he added, those figures were from the middle of the year -- prior to the annual arrival of University of Colorado students.

"The June numbers loosened up a bit," he said. "Things are even tighter than that."

Residents of mountain towns hoping to find housing in Boulder or close to their affected homes may have a difficult time, he said. Additionally, displaced residents may find challenges in finding affordable rentals and properties for shorter lease terms, he added.

Demand is so high that property owners do not need to fill spaces with month-to-month tenants, he said. He added that rents also could come at a significant cost.

"It would be really hard to identify something as predatory under current conditions," McMaken said of rent prices. "In 2003 to 2007, rents declined. So now that they're actually able to fill all the units, owners are trying to raise rates as much as they can."

Housing Helpers, a Boulder-based real estate firm, has recorded a jump in call volume from flood victims seeking information, said Tom Orlando, Realtor and relocation director for the locally based real estate agency.

The majority of the callers are in exploratory mode as the fates of their homes are unknown -- as is the timeframe when they can return, he said.

"We're finding it difficult to find short-term leases, but we do have a lot of options for six months or longer," he said.

The city of Boulder's market is very tight, but Orlando said he has found some available housing along the U.S. 36 corridor.

"If people really need a place, we can get them in a place ... they have to be flexible with their criteria," he said.

Brian MacDonald, a broker associate with Coldwell Banker's Boulder office, is hoping that a program aimed at providing housing to people with major credit events -- such as a short sale, foreclosure or bankruptcy -- could be utilized by flood victims.

MacDonald said he recently realized that a Coldwell Banker and Hyperion Homes program designed to assist people who went through significant financial events could help them potentially become homeowners by renting a house that is on the market. The program also has a lease-to-buy option for a 5-year period.

Since MacDonald started marketing the program for its original intention, "I've had at least 100 calls from people who were in the target audience," he said. "It just occurred to me that the program would work for (the flood victims)."

Some affected residents also have holed up at area hotels.

Occupancy rates at the Boulder Outlook Hotel, 800 28th St., have been close to full since Sept. 12, said Dan King, the hotel's owner. King's hotel cut deals for some of the victims and made allowances on some pet policies.

"We clearly have a lot of families staying here," he said. "Twenty rooms a night (were booked) all of a sudden."

The displaced residents staying at Boulder Outlook and other area hotels also may be running out of time, he said, noting that his hotel and others have been booked solid months in advance of the University of Colorado's Oct. 5 home game against the University of Oregon.

"We can't get them through that weekend," he said. The state of Boulder County's housing market has Dawn Stanley deeply worried.

Stanley and her family -- including her husband, Alex, their 20-month-old daughter, one dog, two cats and live-in au pair -- evacuated their Longmont home in Southmoor Park. A friend from graduate school was able to take in everyone but the cats, who are at the Longmont Humane Society, but Stanley and her family can stay only through Oct. 1.

Adding further complications is that Stanley is 32 weeks pregnant and ill with hyperemesis gravidarum.

The search for housing has been "so frustrating," Stanley said.

"We have no solid leads on a new home to rent," Stanley wrote in an email to the Camera. "I spend a lot of time checking Craigslist, we have friends looking and asking their friends... And very little has come our way."

When she has been able to reach someone, there have been several other potential renters competing for the space.

"Rents are also creeping up (and leaping up, in some cases), which limits our options," she said. "I'm so grateful we are all safe and together, and I'm very worried we will be effectively homeless when the baby arrives." Contact Camera Business Writer Alicia Wallace at 303-473-1332 or wallacea@dailycamera.com.

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